The Greyhound Trust, formerly the RGT, is the industry’s most effective home finding charity.
It sources retirement homes for more than half of the industry’s racing greyhounds, around 3,800 greyhounds, and operates on a budget of around £4m per year. Of that £1.4 million comes from the BGRF, with the remainder raised by the branches and the head office team. Given the emotions associated with retired greyhounds, the Trust has its supporters and its critics.
In recent weeks, a couple of comments on this site from independent homefinders have criticised the GT and its modus operandi. We thought it only fair to give the Trust the opportunity to share its position, policies and possibly explain some of the confusion and misunderstanding of how it operates.
Here are the questions we asked, and the response. . .
To put the Trust’s work into some perspective, how many branches are there and how many people work for the organisation on a voluntary and professional basis?
The Greyhound Trust has held independent charitable status since 1975 and the UK’s largest single-breed homing charity. We work proactively with greyhound tracks, owners, trainers, and the regulator to strive for a day when all racing greyhounds retire to loving homes and are treated with compassion and kindness.
In 2016 the Trust received £1.4 million from the British Greyhound Racing Fund (an amount unchanged since 2011), with an additional £2.7 million raised via branch and Head Office fundraising efforts from our kind supporters and donors. The BGRF donation has been static since 2011, so in real terms, there has been a decrease in this industry contribution to homing.
The Trust currently operates 56 homing branches and several promotional branches, with over 1000 registered volunteers involved in a range of roles. There are a small team of 9 FTE staffesponsible for all aspects of the charity’s operations. The strategic direction of the charity is set by the Board of Trustees, who also oversee governance. Trustees gift their experience, skills and time to the charity and none are paid.
The rebranding of the Trust, from the RGT, presumably cost a great deal of money. Its critics would argue that those resources would have been better spent on re-homing. How could it be justified?
At this current time not all greyhounds leaving racing are getting the homes they deserve. While the Trust’s committed volunteers continue to work hard in our branches, we have to widen our reach in order to find new homes, and raise the profile of greyhounds as family pets. If we are to meet the vision of the charity, of a day when all racing greyhounds retire to loving homes and are treated with compassion and kindness, then we are going to need to engage new audiences with a clear, consistent, and powerful national message. Underpinning the refresh of the brand is a fundamental need to bring our network of branches and volunteers closer together, united behind our vision, and with a clear identity of who we are and what we are about.
We are proud of our efficiency as a charity, with 87p in every pound we spend going directly on the greyhounds. We are sector leading in that respect. The refreshing of the charity’s brand in 2017 was achieved without any impact on our homing budgets. To further minimise impact, the brand change has been phased over almost a year.
The old RGT branding was inconsistent at best, and this led to a low level of public awareness in relation to the size of our task and work. The principal change was to remove the word retired from the name (but not from our vision, mission, or messaging). Audiences unconnected to racing didn’t always understand or recognise the charity, and often perceived ‘retired’ to mean ‘old’ when it came to the greyhounds themselves, when in reality we home both young and old dogs.
In addition, has been a tightening of the legislation and regulations in relation to fundraising and financial transparency that meant greater consistency was needed in every aspect of what we do.
The reality of an ever more crowded market in animal homing, means that now more than ever, the Greyhound Trust requires a strong, consistent, and clear message. Without that we risk seeing fundraising, homing, awareness, and interest in what we do fall off, placing the sustainability of the numbers of greyhounds we can home after racing at long-term risk.
The public expectation of interacting with a charity has also changed, with public trust and confidence in charities having been knocked by criticisms around financial transparency and fundraising methods. It is absolutely essential that the Trust presents a professional and trustworthy image to the public that gives them confidence in donating to us, whether that is putting a pound in a tin on the high street or taking the decision to leave us a legacy in their will.
How does the Trust’s income compare with other homing charities?
Although we often want the bullet point headlines, it is practically very difficult to draw comparisons with other charities. No other greyhound charity operates on the scale of the Greyhound Trust, which is the largest single-breed dog homing charity in the country. Larger charities, such as Dogs Trust or Battersea Dogs and Cats Home will often work with a wider range of breeds, and may invest money in other areas not directly related to homing, such as specific campaigning or research. Some organisations involved in homing, who are ‘independent’ are not registered charities and their financial data is therefore not publicly available.
In terms of numbers of dogs homed, a close comparison would be Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, who found homes for 3, 683 dogs in 2016. In 2016 Battersea homed 95 greyhounds and it takes them around 25% longer on average to home a greyhound compared to other breeds. Their annual overall expenditure was £39.5 million (£17.9 million on charitable activities for the welfare of dogs and cats).
http://www.bdch.org.uk/files/BDCH_Impact_report_2016.pdf
In the greyhound homing community, Forever Hounds Trust, who rebranded from ‘Greyhound Rescue West of England ‘ in 2016 recorded an expenditure of (over 14 months) £1, 046, 676 and found homes for 475 sighthounds (they home greyhounds and lurchers but how many of each is unclear for 2016).
https://foreverhoundstrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/FHT-Final-Accounts-2016-typed-dates.pdf
The scale that the Greyhound Trust operates on is vast by comparison to other single breed charities, and indeed many other mixed breed charities.
While there may be critics of the Trust, it is a fact that we operate at high levels of efficiency and raise significant funds in addition to the BGRF donation (£2.7 million in 2016 raised in addition to the £1.4 million from BGRF) to enable us to continue our work homing greyhounds.
Given it costs around £900 to rehome every greyhound, can that figure be reduced? Why, for example, does it cost so much more than for the independent home-finders?
The £900 figure is arrived at by calculating overall expenditure divided by the number of greyhounds homed, so our costs extend well beyond the homing part of the process, and include the investment in fundraising, operations, branch costs, marketing and promoting the breed, playing an active part in forums such as the All Party Parliamentary Group for Greyhounds and the Greyhound Forums, and working with stakeholders throughout the industry – from the GBGB to PDSA – to raise awareness of what we do and greyhounds as pets. These initiatives benefit everyone involved in the homing of greyhounds and most importantly all racing and retired greyhounds, not just those who are homed by us.
It is impossible to make a comparison between an organisation homing around 100 greyhounds a year and one homing 3800 and there will be no direct comparison of how costs are recorded and presented. Collaboration of those working hard to home greyhounds is key, we all have a vital role to play in homing the retired racing greyhounds that need us.
The Trust operates efficiency, and we are proud of what our volunteers achieve. It is through their dedication and hard work that we are able to see 87 pence in every pound we spend go directly towards the greyhounds. The contribution that our volunteers make is almost impossible to put a value on, with a conservative estimate of just under 174,000 hours of volunteer time gifted to us in 2016.
It is important to ensure we run efficiently and that the greyhounds get the care and focus they require; with this in mind, we will always strive to be as efficient as possible when homing greyhounds, but our focus is a balance between quality and costs and we can never be driven solely by costs as this may negatively impact on the greyhounds.
We have been told that money raised by individual branches has to be handed over to head office. Is that not a disincentive for fund raisers?
This is untrue.
Many Greyhound Trust branches operate with minimal volunteer resources and may choose not to operate a bank account as there is no need. In that instance money raised is put into the national ‘pot’, which is then used to cover their kenneling costs, veterinary fees and home finding expenses. Where branches do operate their own accounts, they can keep money locally to cover Greyhound Trust homing activity.
The way our branch network has evolved means that some branches operate more self-sufficiently than others, but all of them are supported financially in some way. Due to the nature of the diverse branch network, some branches need greater support than others, but all benefit from the national charity; financial support for greyhound costs (kenneling, veterinary) and volunteer costs are common ways we financially support branches. In addition, we ensure that all Greyhound Trust volunteers, vehicles etc. are insured and offer support directly to branches and individual volunteers, whilst delivering national programmes that benefit homing, awareness and fundraising.
The Greyhound Trust cares equally about all racing and retired racing greyhounds; the vast majority of our supporters are happy to help a greyhound wherever it is in the country, rather than being specific about only supporting greyhounds in a particular location. We also recognise the tremendous value created locally – and the effort involved – by branches who build community profile through events, walks, and partnerships with Pets at Home and many supermarkets, and we will continue to support this.
As a national charity, registered in England and Wales as well as in Scotland and we have both a local and a national impact. We work to ensure that we give every greyhound the very best chance of finding a home across our network. We believe that all greyhounds deserve a loving home when they retire from racing, as such we will continue to work as hard as we can to fundraise to help as many greyhounds as possible.
We have heard complaints about the burden that you ask volunteers to shoulder, particularly in relation to administration and paperwork. Is that accurate and fair?
Everything we ask our volunteers to do is directly linked to ensuring the charity meets the requirements of regulation and legislation, and good practice for the homing and welfare of greyhounds. We don’t ask anything of our volunteers lightly and we have to do this so that we do not put at risk all of their hard work and fundraising, which is crucial as the BGRF donation only covers our kenneling costs.
Our volunteers are absolutely critical to what we do, and we are constantly looking for ways to make the experience as rewarding as possible. It is always our aim to streamline volunteer activity where we can and we hope that the full rollout of a database platform for our greyhound homing journey will significantly ease the paperwork workload during 2018.
Until we achieve our vision of a day when all racing greyhounds retire to loving homes and are treated with compassion and kindness, we will continue to focus our efforts on raising more money and having the resources in place to do the very best we can to find forever homes for as many greyhounds as we can each year.
How many greyhounds does the GT currently have placed in kennels awaiting homing and is it correct that some of those kennels are only paid £4 per day for each dog?
Numbers of greyhounds in the care of the Greyhound Trust fluctuate but generally sit around 1000. Kennelling rates vary, some being regional variations and some linked to the fact that kennel providers volunteer us the spaces and the day rate only covers costs.
Rates we pay are a direct reflection of the funds we have available, balanced against the need to offer a large number of spaces across the country. We are always at capacity and there is great pressure on our waiting list.
Were there not such pressure on the charity to take in greyhounds, we would be able to look at this differently, but even with our rates at current levels, we still face a bill for kenneling alone that exceeds the BGRF money donated to us each year.
We will continue to focus efforts on increasing our income through our work with the greyhound industry and our own fundraising and committed donors to ensure we are doing the most we can for retired racing greyhounds.
If GT had increased resources, would it be possible to re-home every ex-racer? What mechanism would need to be in place and how much would it cost?
We don’t use the term re-homing, we ‘home’ and focus on the fact that for these dogs it is their first time in a home after their life as a working dog.
We will continue striving for a day when all greyhounds suitable for a home, find one and we believe that with the correct resources and collaboration that this will be feasible one day, but not without the correct infrastructure and resources.
There are over 8.5 million dogs in the UK, in almost a quarter of all households. Over 20% of these come from charities, so there is still room for growth.
We do not have a selective intake, so can sometimes have larger numbers of greyhounds that can be harder to find a home for. Whether it is down to their age, health, colour, size, or gender, this will always be a challenge when dealing with such large numbers. We have plans to address this more in the future through our marketing and communications strategy, and increased public awareness.
We are working closely with the GBGB to ensure that they know the scale of our challenge and how we feel we could better meet the needs of the greyhounds leaving racing. The Greyhound Trust Board are focused on how to increase the number of greyhounds who successfully find a home each year, so costings are a work in progress.
The Trust is as effective as it can be with the income and current infrastructure, so changes would be required to home significant additional numbers; i.e greater investment in advertising and developing a network of support which is more proactive to help trainers and tracks – this is not just about doing more of the same, it’s about building on what we do for the greater good of greyhounds.
Are any greyhounds ‘unhomeable’? If so, how many and what is their fate?
Yes, we believe a small number may genuinely be unsuitable for homing. The industry figures that will be released in March will give a better indication of the numbers that the sport believes are unsuitable for homing.
The Trust believes that the sport would benefit from objective assistance in behavior assessment, to ensure that greyhounds deemed unsuitable for homing are fairly assessed and appropriate behavior modification interventions are used, to minimise the number of greyhounds euthanised under this category by the sport.
Finding the right home is critical, and ensuring suitability of each greyhound for that home, remains a priority for us, which in turn helps maintain the reputation of greyhounds as excellent family pets and companions.
What are the biggest frustrations with the industry/what could it do better to support the Greyhound Trust?
We stay firmly focused on the greyhounds, and everything we do, every decision we take, is made with the greyhounds in mind. We strongly believe that it is through collaboration that we can best secure the future of retired racing greyhounds.
Responsibility for the future of a racing greyhound needs to be addressed at the start of their career, not at the end. We are looking forward to working with those directly involved with the sport, as well as the wider industry, to improve outcomes for the greyhounds. It is our hope that all those involved with greyhound racing would join us in focusing on positivity of collaboration and working together for the good of the greyhounds.
With that strength of collaboration it is realistic that we could achieve our vision of a day when all racing greyhounds retire to loving homes and are treated with compassion and kindness. Our greatest need remains money, and with additional money, we can further development and create a sustainable infrastructure that will give the best possible future for greyhounds retiring from racing.
Support, collaboration and positivity for work that the Greyhound Trust does is what would benefit the greyhounds the most.
How has the GT changed over the last ten years and where does it need to be in another decade?
The Greyhound Trust remains committed to our vision of a day when all racing greyhounds retire to loving homes and are treated with compassion and kindness. Our operations have naturally evolved since 1975 when we were formed and will continue to evolve in line with operational needs and external pressures placed upon us in relation to capacity and regulation. Our focus is to ensure that we are well placed to continue the excellent homing work, long into the future and to help as many greyhounds as possible.
The Trust would benefit from closer working partnerships throughout its operations in order to find more homes every year for retired greyhounds. This will mean greater investment in the infrastructure for homing, alongside supporting and developing the volunteers and staffing structure. Succession planning for our branches and our supporter base is also critical if we are to maintain and build on our nationwide presence.
Our brand has evolved over the past year, and some of our terminology has changed. We are trying to consistently ensure that the message the public gets is the same, from Cornwall to Fife.
What has changed and is continuing to change is the sector in which we operate, and the public approach to charities in general. No longer can charities hope to operate based on just the goodwill and sense of public duty that many supporters traditionally had. Now, we face a level of scrutiny from legislators, regulators, the media, influencers, and supporters that is far tougher. The public expect a consumer focused experience, and are faced with an overwhelming choice of options when deciding where to donate or home a dog from. We must therefore rise to this challenge and ensure that we are a charity that can be trusted and that we will offer a high quality homing experience with pre and post homing support.
Continued investment in the profile of the charity remains a priority. Without it we simply won’t register above the noise that hits the general public every day. This is why our branding is so critical. Without a clear, consistent, and powerful message, all our hard work and the endeavour of our volunteers will struggle to gain the audience it needs and deserves, and our greyhounds will struggle to get the homes that they need.
Our focus is, and always has been, on the greyhounds and this will never change.
